Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Day 10. On to Quincy.

Today was not a very productive day. It started warm and just got hotter. In the 5 minutes it took to drive from the hotel to Rodz Grill for breakfast, the temp was warm enough to make my hands sweat and my gloves moist.

Rodz Grill, Angels Camp, CA. A neat, car themed diner.

My plan for today was to follow CA-49 up from Angels Camp, through Placerville, through Auburn, up to CA-89, to somewhere on CA-36. Things didn't go quite that way...

I was following the GPS and doing ok. Somewhere in Auburn things went wrong. The GPS will occasionally call the road I'm on by the local name, such as "Main Street", instead of the route number, like "49". So I wasn't to concerned when it told me I was on Auburn-Folsom Road. I should've been a bit more aware of where I was going, but it was HOT and I think the temperature got to my brain! I didn't realize I was so lost until I saw a sign for Rancho Cordova. I found my way onto Hwy 50 and got off back in Placerville. By the time I got back up to Auburn, I had wasted 3 hours! It was fun to re-ride that section of 49 again, but it was a time killer.
I found my way through Auburn, again, and managed to stay on 49 and not get lost. CA-49, especially where it runs along side the Yuba River, is a great road for a motorcycle!

CA-49 takes you through neat little towns like Downieville and Sierra City.

I had set my GPS to guide me to Quincy. It told me to turn north onto Gold Lake Road. As the elevation climbed, the temps dropped. It wasn't long before I was into the snow again. I wanted to stop and lay in the snow for a while and cool off. While I was following Gold Lake Road, the GPS told me to turn right onto a forest service road. I made the turn and in less than 50 feet I had to stop. Darn GPS.

As if wasting 3 hours because I got lost, and being sent down a snow covered road weren't enough, I got stung. After getting onto CA-89 from Gold Lake Road, it was very hot. I was running with my jacket totally unzipped. I was riding along and felt a bug hit me in my throat. It hit hard. Then I felt a pain in my left shoulder, right under the collar bone. I felt something in my shirt moving towards my belly. I grabbed at it with one hand, while trying to get to the side of the road and stop the bike. Once I got stopped, I ripped the my shirt out from my pants and a big fuzzy bumble bee fell on the ground.
I'd had enough. I stopped in Quincy for the night, had a Subway, and grabbed a hotel room. While I've been typing this, I've lost the internet connection 3 times. Good night!

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From one of my favorite motorcycle movies, "One Week".

"When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write?" ------- Ben Tyler

Took a look down a westbound road, Right away I made my choice Headed out to my big two-wheeler,I was tired of my own voice Took a bead on the northern plains And just rolled that power on

Twelve hours out of Mackinaw City Stopped in a bar to have a brew Met a girl and we had a few drinks And I told her what I'd decided to do

She looked out the window a long long moment Then she looked into my eyes She didn't have to say a thing, I knew what she was thinkin'